Charles accepted bin Laden money
The Prince of Wales accepted a £1 million (NZ$1.95m) payment from the family of Osama bin Laden, The Sunday Times can reveal.
Prince Charles secured the money from Bakr bin Laden, the patriarch of the wealthy Saudi family, and his brother Shafiq. Both men are half-brothers of Osama bin Laden, the founder of al Qaeda who masterminded the September 11 attacks.
Charles, 73, had a private meeting with Bakr, 76, at Clarence House in London on October 30, 2013, two years after Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Pakistan.
The future king agreed to the donation despite the initial objections of advisers at Clarence House and the Prince of Wales Charitable Fund (PWCF), where the money was ultimately deposited.
According to sources, several of Charles’s advisers, including at least one trustee, pleaded with him in person to return the money.
One of his household staff said it would cause national outrage if the news leaked to the media.
They told the prince that ‘‘it would not be good for anybody’’ if it emerged that he had accepted money from the family of the perpetrator of the worst terrorist attack in history.
A second adviser also urged the prince to return the money. They told the prince he would suffer serious reputational damage if his name appeared in the same sentence as the terrorist.
One source said: ‘‘The fact that a member of the highest level of the British establishment was choosing to broker deals with a name and a family that not only rang alarm bells, but abject horror around the world . . . why would you do this?
‘‘What good reason is there to do this?’’
They added: ‘‘I just didn’t feel any member of the British royal family should be involved in that sort of undertaking.’’
Another palace insider said the ‘‘great fear’’ was that the payment would undermine Charles and the charity’s reputation, saying: ‘‘There are other sources of money in the world.’’
However, Charles was said to have felt it would be too embarrassing to hand the money back to the brothers and feared that they would suspect the reason. It is understood that one household staff member believes they were ‘‘very vociferous’’ with the prince but were ‘‘shouted down’’.
Another adviser to Charles is said to have implored the prince to return the money. Their words caused ‘‘great’’ concern in the palace, but were apparently ignored.
In response to inquiries, Sir Ian Cheshire, chairman of PWCF, said the donation was agreed ‘‘wholly’’ by the five trustees at the time. Those were: Dame Amelia Fawcett, a financier who chairs Kew Gardens; Sir Michael Rake, the former chairman of BT; John Varley, the former Barclays chief executive; Kenneth Wilson, an academic; and William Nye, then Charles’s principal private secretary.